FBI Director Kash Patel and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) squared off Tuesday during the annual FBI oversight hearing, in an exchange that quickly turned personal as the two men revisited old disputes, according to reporting from The Gateway Pundit.
The confrontation centered on a past statement Patel made describing the mainstream media as “the most powerful enemy that the United States has ever seen.” Schiff, seeking to pin Patel down on the remark, asked the FBI director directly whether he still stood by it.
Patel did not back away. According to The Gateway Pundit, he responded by pointing to what he characterized as lies and personal attacks emanating from his critics, and indicated that the conduct on display that day illustrated his point about the press.
Schiff Presses on Media Comparison
The exchange grew sharper when Schiff followed up by asking Patel whether he believed the media represented a greater threat than Iran. Patel’s answer, as reported, was that what he described as a lying media constitutes the most harmful institution in the United States.
Schiff then sought to narrow the target, asking Patel whether he had been referring specifically to The New York Times. The article does not indicate that Patel gave a direct yes-or-no response to that question.
At one point during the back-and-forth, Patel made a light remark about a photograph, telling Schiff he should post it — a moment that, in the context of a tense oversight hearing, read as a jab rather than a compliment.
Patel Turns to Russia Collusion and FISA
Rather than stay on the defensive, Patel pivoted to questions of his own, invoking Schiff’s role in past congressional investigations. He asked Schiff whether he had ever found evidence of Russia collusion, referencing an envelope Schiff had once held up during earlier proceedings.
Patel also raised the issue of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants issued during the period when Schiff sat on the House Select Committee, characterizing them as illegal.
According to the account, Schiff declined to say whether he had found any evidence of Trump-Russia collusion — a question that has trailed him since his time as a leading figure in the congressional probe of the matter.
A Recurring Feud
Tuesday’s confrontation was not the first time the two men have collided in the setting of the annual FBI Senate Judiciary oversight hearing. Last September, Patel went after Schiff in notably blunt terms, calling him the biggest fraud ever to sit in the United States Senate and describing him as a disgrace to the institution and a coward.
In that earlier exchange, Patel also accused Schiff of continuing to lie from his position and of putting on a show to raise money, calling him a political buffoon at best. The Gateway Pundit, which reported on both hearings, framed Tuesday’s events as a continuation of that running dispute.
The hearing format — a periodic check-in between the FBI director and senators tasked with overseeing the bureau — has become a forum for some of the sharper partisan exchanges between Patel and Democratic lawmakers. Media treatment, the legacy of the Russia investigation, and the FBI’s use of surveillance authorities have all surfaced as recurring flashpoints in that setting.
Reporting on the exchange comes from Cristina Laila of The Gateway Pundit.
Source: www.thegatewaypundit.com — https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/09/kash-patel-buries-adam-schiff-during-annual-fbi/